5 THINGS I LEARNT FROM NANOWRIMO

At the beginning of 2015, I was not happy.

While I have aspired to be a writer since I was six years old (shortly after getting over my aspiration to become a hairdresser),  I have never felt like I could call myself a writer until this year. During my second year of university I had the simple revelation that if I wanted to be a writer, there was nothing stopping me. Instead of sitting around and waiting for someone to hand me an oversize badge labelled 'writer' and give me permission to begin, I could (and should!) just do it.

So I did.

I started this blog. It didn’t have a target, it didn’t have a niche, and, really, I didn’t really care about any of that. This blog was never started with the goal of appealing to a target market. The sole idea behind it was to get me to write, as much as possible. And it worked. I am now involved in several writing projects and I truly believe that starting this blog it was integral to building my speed, confidence and skill as a writer. 

Fast forward to October 2015. One of my colleagues explains this thing called 'National Novel Writing Month' (colloquially known as NaNoWriMo) to me. I've heard the term in passing, but never really understood what it was all about. As she explained, I became more and more excited, eventually making the ambitious decision to make November 2015 my first NaNoWriMo. 

Having completed my first NaNoWriMo, I'm writing this post with the intention of giving an overview of what participating in it was like, as well as giving a brief overview of how it works. I hope that by spreading the word about NaNoWriMo, other writers might learn of it, and that participating in it might help them the same way it has helped me. 

So, what does does being part of NaNoWriMo actually involve?

In brief, NaNoWriMo involves setting a writing goal for yourself, which will be completed within the thirty days of November, breaking that goal down into daily chunks and hacking away at it with the support of the NaNoWriMo community. The standard NaNoWriMo writing goal is 50,000 words, but participants are encouraged to choose a goal that suits them. A simple enough concept, and a simple goal that any writer could set themselves any time they like. What sets NaNoWriMo apart is the encouragement, advice and motivation provided by the community. During November social media (particularly Twitter) comes to life with writers all around the world sharing their writing challenges and victories, encouraging each other, and generally creating a positive environment. NaNoWriMo is not about producing a finished novel in a month (although, if you are capable of such a feat, good for you!). It's about getting the ideas that have been floating around in your head down into words. "50,000 words, not 50,000 pretty words" is the most apt advice about NaNoWriMo that I received during participation. 

Apart from the online community, many cities around the world have local NaNoWriMo community leaders, who will organise physical, real world meet-ups. Mainly these will take the form of 'write-ins', open events, usually held in public spaces (libraries, cafes, etc) where NaNo participants will meet up and write together, although some groups also organise social nights, 'plot-ins' and meet and greet sessions.

So that is the gist of what NaNoWriMo is. Now let me tell you what my NaNoWriMo was like.

Before I explain, I'd like to give some context. My daily routine at the moment involves:

1. Working 4 days a week at my paid job

2. Writing for Another Dungeon 

3. Writing a supplement for a role-playing game called Honour

4. Keeping up with self-motivated Japanese studies

5. Helping design a new RPG called Athla

5. Living independently, doing all those adult things that are necessary to keep life going (in other words, I don't live with my parents)

So. As you can see from this, I like to keep busy. On top of this the beginning of November this year happened to coincide with the end of PAX Australia (the biggest gaming festival in Australia) which I attended and worked at (for Another Dungeon). 

In my imagination, starting NaNoWriMo involved waking up from a good night's rest, making myself a cup of tea, floating over to my computer and beginning work. 

In reality, starting NaNoWriMo involved arriving home from PAX around 7pm Sunday evening, totally exhausted and wanting nothing more than to sleep for the next three days before going to work in the morning.

So began my first NaNoWriMo, and honestly, the description I've just given of the first day basically sums up what it is like to do NaNo if you already have pretty full schedule -  alot of writing when your body would rather be sleeping. However! The great thing about pushing yourself like this is realising how much potential you have if you just push yourself!

50,000 words breaks down to around 1,700 words per day. Roughly the equivalent of completing a minor Uni essay the night before it is due. My NaNoWriMo was not very balanced. I didn't meet my daily word goal each day, which meant that on days I didn't have to go to work I'd often cram, trying to fit two or three thousand words in to make up for lost time. The NaNo website tracks how many words you have written compared to how many you should have written to be on track. My graph looks like this: 

My NaNoWriMo 2015 results

As you can see, my efforts were sporadic, and on the last day of November I had to complete around 7,000 words to make my goal. As tired as I was for all of November, and as difficult as it was to make my goal, I am really really glad that I chose to undertake the challenge. Participating in NaNoWriMo was exactly the opportunity I needed to push myself into really having a crack at writing fiction, and although it was (and still is!) hard, I made a wonderful discovery; that writing fiction is something I love to do. 

Now I would like to share with you a few things I realised about my writing during November. Everyone's writing style and work process is different, but hopefully the lessons I learned contain some kernel of usefulness that you might be able to draw upon. 

1. Writing sprints are the best. 

A writing sprint involve simply starting a timer and seeing how many words you can write during that set period. Usually, these are used as a kind of friendly competitive device at write-ins (both digital and physical), but I found them incredibly useful for solitary writing too. My sprinting method involves simply setting a 15 minute timer, choosing some fast paced music (during most of NaNoWriMo I used extended mixes of the Undertale soundtrack) and hitting go! I keep a record of all my sprint word counts as a way to track my performance and compete with myself. My highly competitive nature makes this a very motivating trick, and I found that my productivity doubled while using this method. Being able to write more in less time is *really* handy if you lead a busy life! I found that the best thing to do before a sprint was quickly familiarise with whichever scene I was writing, do a few sentences (without starting the timer) to get a feel for the scene and then begin. The few times that I dove straight in without familiarising led to messy starts of trying to remember exactly what was happening.

2. The NaNoWriMo community is awesome and it can help you. 

If you are struggling with your writing in any way, the NaNoWriMo organisers provide heaps of resources which will help combat your problem. Guest writing coaches are brought in to offer tips and advice, online sprints and write-ins are organised, and the website is chock full of links to useful articles on how to plan and progress your writing. Also, if you're active on Twitter, it doesn't take much to connect with other writers and develop a real sense of camaraderie during November. How does this translate into writing advice? The lesson is that you don't have to do it all yourself. If you are struggling with any part of your story, help and advice is available and plentiful if you look for it! Many writers tend to adopt a kind of 'lone wolf' attitude when it comes to writing a novel and never thing to look in these places for help. 

3. Call yourself a writer. 

Throughout 2015 I've made leaps and bounds when it comes to my writing career. I'm doing so much more for it now than I was a year ago. But prior to November, I was still having trouble introducing myself to people as a 'writer'. NaNoWriMo changed that. Achieving the feat of writing 50,000 words in a month is extremely validating, and it delivers an awesome boost of confidence. Most of the writers I know similarly struggle with things like Impostor Syndrome, and NaNoWriMo can be a great way to face your fears and work past that self doubt.

4. It's worth pushing when you feel stuck. 

It is difficult to pursue any creative task when you're not feeling inspired. It is much easier to give up and try again later. NaNoWriMo taught me, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Writer's Block absolutely does not exist if you don't want it to. 'Writer's Block' is a fancy way of saying that you feel tired or hungry or uninspired and therefore are finding it harder than normal to write. It is TOTALLY possible to push through any of those things and keep writing. Even if it means you end up with a few really crappy sentences that you don't keep after editing, pushing forward until you feel unstuck is always better than allowing the excuse of 'Writer's Block' to fester in your mind until you have convinced yourself that it is a real legitimate Thing that is stopping you from writing. 

5. 50,000 words isn't all that much. 

Okay so that might sound a little strange, but those of you who have written a novel will understand what I'm saying. When I began NaNoWriMo I had only a rough chapter plan and lots of idea for scenes and character relationships. I knew vaguely what needed to happen and I assigned 5,000 words to 10 chapters, thinking that I would be able to have most of those chapters written by the end of November. Never have I been so wrong!! My first chapter ended up being around 11,000 words and they have only gotten longer since then. I'll probably play around with the text that I've got and end up splitting it into smaller chunks when editing, but the point is that telling a story can take a lot of words. I think this is probably more true for fantasy, science fiction or any other type of writing that involves a lot of world-building, but it is something to be cautious of no matter what you are writing. Even if you aren't much of a planner when it comes to writing, it's probably helpful to think carefully about how much you want your story to contain and make sure you focus on writing the scenes that matter; the ones that heighten drama and intrigue. It is easy to get lost in conversations and scenes, and one of the best skills a writer can have is knowing when a scene is over.  

What 50,000 words actually looks like

I deeply encourage anybody interested in writing to give NaNoWriMo a try, at least once. Pushing yourself and achieving such an epic goal is great for your confidence and it teaches you so much about writing. Oh, and at the end you've written something that's 50,000 words long. Not a bad effort for one month!

Have you ever participated in NaNo? Have you considered it but decided not to? I'd love to hear about your writing adventures in the comments ^_^/